Injury Prevention in Josephville, MO. Whether you’re an athlete hoping for a shot at the next level, or you just retired and want to dedicate your time to hiking, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our professional Josephville, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to recover from injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your movement, muscle and joint strength, and flexibility to guide you through exercises that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Request an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location most convenient for you.

Being physically active is vitally important to many Josephville, MO residents. Many of us participate in activities like playing sports, hiking, or other physical activities. Additionally, committing to an active lifestyle reduces the risk of future health problems including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, depression, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Josephville, MO physical therapists allow you to come back even stronger after an injury, but our injury prevention experts can help preserve your active lifestyle by optimizing your overall movement health. All of our treatment plans, for both healing from and preventing injury, are based on evidence-backed techniques and are developed uniquely for each client and the lifestyle they desire.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a lingering injury that is not getting better with time, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location most convenient for you in Josephville, MO for a free injury screening. To take preventative measures and protect your sport or hobby, read on below or call to speak to a physical therapist today.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in Josephville, MO

Most injuries fall into two categories:

1. Overuse injuries are injuries happen gradually as a body part degrades because of repetitive movements. In sports, we see them the most in in overhead athletes such as baseball or lacrosse players and commonly reveal themselves with joint pain.
2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include landing on uneven ground or receiving a blow. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, fractures, and dislocations.

Some of the injuries we see most frequently, such as rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, for example ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, with a sudden impact to the knee.

Why Do Injuries Happen? | Injury Prevention in Josephville, MO

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally happen because your soft tissue, bones, and joints cannot handle the force, torque, or stretching that are required or are possible in a given activity. There are three common dysfunctions that lead to injury:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is essential to supporting joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can lead to dependency on one set of muscles, which may cause your body to force it to participate in an activity it shouldn’t. It also prevents you from having good posture, and the weaker muscles will become fatigued more quickly, increasing the risk of injury. Muscle imbalance can refer to insufficient muscle balance in relation to other muscle groups, such as having a strong chest and weak back, or in the same muscle group, such as an imbalance between the four muscles of the rotator cuff. Symptoms include:

• Muscle weakness
• Muscle inflexibility
• Poor muscle recruitment
• Poor coordination

Tailored injury prevention with our professional physical therapists in Josephville, MO will bring balance to your muscles.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can result in poor balance and lead to your body moving in ways it is not designed to, increasing your risk of injury. Problems in your nervous system, swelling, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. Symptoms include:

• Joint mobility restrictions
• Muscle imbalance
• Poor coordination
• Lessened balance

At our first injury prevention appointment in Josephville, MO, we’ll go over your medical records and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, alongside with your doctor or any additional providers involved in your treatment, we’ll come up with a customized treatment plan been proven to work by research and studies to get your body moving as it should.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people with desk jobs. People who play sports and others with active lifestyles can have postural dysfunction when lying down, using the computer, or in specific body positions necessary for a given activity. Good posture means correct alignments of your body from your head to your toes in a way that encourages our spine to stay in its natural curves. Poor posture can compress the vertebrae, which disrupts your nervous system and makes it difficult to reach ideal motion health. It causes injuries through:

• Muscle weakness
• Muscle imbalance
• Poor positioning
• Joint mobility restrictions
• Poor muscle recruitment

Good posture is an important part of injury prevention because it ensures you are using the right muscles for the right movements, your flexibility is not jeopardized, and your vertebrae remain in place.

How to Prevent Injury in Josephville, MO

All sports and physical activities can potentially lead to an injury. We cannot promise that our injury prevention program completely negates the risk of injury. However, there are several steps you can take to greatly reduce the risk of injury:

• Take a rest — Your body needs time to rest and recover after any moderate to intense activity. If you have a very high activity level, one or two rest days a week will signal to your body to naturally heal any mild pain or soreness. If you’re moderately active, take it easy after activity so your body doesn’t become too fatigued.
• Wear protective equipment — Helmets, mouth guards, protective eyewear, and other required equipment in many sports can help prevent injuries like contusions or concussions. If you’ve already suffered an injury to a joint or soft tissue, your Josephville, MO doctor or injury prevention professional may fit you for braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize a joint. Other measures like making sure all the equipment is snug offers further protection.
• Strengthen muscles — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them withstand the force and torque of heavy activity. In your personalized injury prevention program with our certified Josephville, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to build up your body to safely participate in the activities you want to participate in.
• Improve flexibility — Stretching contributes to injury prevention in three way:
  1. It enhances your range of motion, which lets for your soft tissue to adjust to more drastic movements.
  2. It enhances circulation, which carries nourishing blood to your soft tissue, removing waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to restore themselves.
  3. It encourages good posture, which we already know is an an important part of injury prevention.

  According to research, sports like basketball that require bouncing and jumping require muscles and tendons compliant enough to perform those movements. Stretching and warm up exercises before games or training further helps prevent injuries.

• Use correct technique — In every physical activity, there is an accepted way to position and move your body. These techniques not only improve performance but help prevent injuries by not forcing your body into unnatural positions and movements. Football players are taught to tackle with the shoulder in order to avoid brain damage, and rotational athletes like golfers and baseball players learn how to best apply torque to your body. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to slow down your movement and analyze how to improve it.
• Don’t ignore what your body is telling you — If you feel pain in a muscle or joint, your body is trying to send you a message. If you feel sudden pain, immediately stop all physical activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body does not feel well enough for an intense workout, save it for another day.
• Don’t play through an injury — Even though teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate an athlete that guts it out through pain, playing with an injury to a muscle, joint, tendon, or ligament could aggravate an existing injury and put you out of commission for longer than it originally would have. Depending on what caused your injury and how severe it is, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, seeing an emergency room, and a series of physical therapy sessions to make sure your recovery and return to action go as well as possible.
• Follow the rules — Most sports have special rules at different levels to help prevent injury. Penalties for targeting in football, rules against slide-tackling in soccer, and even the existence of bike lanes are all rules put in place to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. There’s a reason those rules exist, and a reason that there are penalties for them.
• Consult a licensed physical therapist — It’s always advisable to get a physical before a new season or starting up a new activity or training regimen. While there, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a licensed physical therapist in Josephville, MO is a good idea for you. Every treatment plan we employ has been proven to reduce the risk of injury, and we’ll personalize your program to how old you are, any previous injuries, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention for Older Josephville, MO Adults

Falls in the elderly accounted for over 3 million emergency room visits and more than 34,000 deaths. Research demonstrates that being physical active is invaluable in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions that limit mobility such as arthritis that accumulate over time can be effectively managed with physical therapy exercises that keep your soft tissue and joints strong. While older adults typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, the same principles of strength, balance, flexibility, and good posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Josephville, MO include:

• Stroke Rehabilitation
• Hip Replacement Physical Therapy
• Workers Comp' Physical Therapy
• Migraine Relief
• Sprain and Strain Treatment
• Geriatric Physical Therapy
• Injury Rehabilitation
• Pain Management Services
• TMJ Treatment
• Herniated Disc Treatment

Josephville, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in something you love doing can create a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same exultation. The professional Josephville, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to develop your personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body strong and flexible, and your mind at ease that you can safely return to the activities you love. We will aid you in feeling the physical and mental health benefits that you do not want to lose. Request an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to find out more about what our Josephville, MO injury prevention specialists can do for you.